Artificial Intelligence, Information Overload, & the Library of the Future - Knowmail

I was invited to give a keynote lecture at the XV International Conference on University Libraries in Mexico City last month. The conference debated the changes occurring or need to occur in university libraries towards the United Nations' "Agenda 2030" horizon. My lecture, titled "Libraries and Knowledge in the Age of Information Overload", took a close look at the impact of the rampant Info Overload that is affecting the entire knowledge landscape on the academic library, and vice versa. The main thing is that where in centuries past knowledge – carried in books – was scarce and precious, today the internet has created a huge overload of information, dubious information and fake information; we are all struggling to survive this info tsunami. As a result, if the libraries of the past were like serene shrines where people would come to bask in the glow of accumulated knowledge, today libraries must serve as sanctuaries where users can get help to survive the aforementioned tsunami, and gain the skills and support to allow them to find insight yet discriminate against the fake and the useless.